This week the country (particularly the transport sector) waited with baited breath for the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) to release its long overdue report on the fuel market. This investigation has been ongoing since September last year, was aimed at identifying whether there are competition problems to be addressed.

Well the news is in and it couldn’t be better. The report proved what we’ve been saying for a while, the UK petrol market is working well and there is no evidence of anti-competitive behaviour.

In case you’ve missed what’s been going on, the report found the UK had some of the cheapest pre-tax road fuel prices in Europe, and confirms that the rise in pump prices for petrol and diesel has been due to a combination of higher crude oil prices and an increase in tax and duty.

The OFT revealed that between 2003 and 2012 pump prices increased from 76 pence per litre (ppl) to 136ppl for petrol, and from 78ppl to 142ppl for diesel, caused by an increase of 33ppl in the cost of crude oil and nearly 24ppl in tax duty. This confirms what we’ve been saying for a while: fuel duty is too high and the government must support the UK economy by cutting it. The recent cancelling of the 3ppl fuel rise was a strong sign of support, but more must be done!

MD of Policy and Communications at the Freight Transport Association (FTA), James Hookham, said: “This report from the OFT won’t change anything, and FTA believes it is only a distraction from the real issue of fuel duty and the chancellor still has to do something.”

So what can we do about it? Well, firstly sign the FairFuelUK (FFUK) petition here and secondly, get your friends and colleagues to sign it too. The more signatures we get, the stronger the message we send out.

FFUK founder Peter Carroll, said:”We have 348,000 people signed up to the campaign but it’s imperative this number keeps growing. I urge all backers of the campaign to email contacts, colleagues and friends and get them to sign up too.”